Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1887-01-22
w. C.. T. U. DEPARTMENT.
For God and home and natiUe land.
A WORKINGMAN'S VIEW.

business was presented to the
Knights of Labor in Maysville,
Kentucky. by T. F. Kiff. We COM
mend it to our bread-winners every
where.
DR.. Hargrieves, author Of "W asted
Resources" states the cost of our do
mestic and imported liquors for the
year 1883 at 944,629, $50, and indir-
estly for pauperism, crime disease
and loss OF labor arising from the
- of drink, estimated from the
kps OF 1880, 1924, 544, O36, togeth-
ef.amounting to the enormous sum
ofSl 1863, 173, 622 in asingleyear; more
than the entire national debt; and
II we take the year 1885, with its in
creased population and devastation
We can safely say S2,O00,000,00O Of
the peoples money has been sunk
together With 100000 human lives,
to satiate the demon rum. The Tn ted
States to-day is the richest nation
on earth, its wealth being computed
at over SIT, OOO,0OO,OOO, and yet one
twenty fourth of all that wealth is
sunk in rum. We have laborinc
population Of 1862, O93, engaged in
the agricultural manufacturing pro-
fossional mechanical trades and
transportations An immense army
yet the sum spent for rum would
give to each Sl15 in round num-
bers, OK moro than some received
for all their labor Well might
that grand and noble man, T. V.
Powderly, the General Master
y orkman Of our noble order, ex-
claim, II" the whole Engl. sh Ian
guase can find no word that strike
| moro terror to my soul than the
| word rum" Brothers, frien Is
how much of that sum has organ
lied labor contributed Can we
hope to elevate all who earn their
bread by the sweat Of their brow
until this terrible waste is stopped.
Tho cry of the liquor traffic is
':Let our industry alone" Yes let
it alone in its bloody work of STAN
ping our civilization with brutality
| and vice. They ask to be protected
in their vested rights but deny pro-
lection to our wives and children
our home and fresides, eur lives
and characters, our humanity and
our souls. Every dime We pay
over the run-seller's counter repre-
sents SO much labor spent for
naught but loss of character, mise
ry, and disgrace.
Wage-workers, esn we afford to
toll and strive aud spend the pro-
ceeds of labor in drink, that debases
our manhood and rob our families
OF even the necessities OF life. and
keeps our necks beneath the heel Of
this liquid monster? They tell us
he is too strong; he cannot be de-
thronsd; that never will this fair
land free from q curse more deadly
than the upas tree; for it always
leaves dIshonor in the home and
murders tho souls OF tho VIC
tins. Arise in your man
hood and crush to death the
viper, the destroyer of man. He is
in your power, and only by your
permission can the traffic exist. It
is our hard earnings that make it
possible. If organized labor would
turn it's back uoon that which
makes them forget sacred tics and
obligations, adding wealth to those
that labor not, robbing themselves
fortheir just reward and eventually
liking them objects of charity. it
would go far to blot that great
stigma from American soil. It's
advocates cry for personal liberty.
Let them drink the vile stuff that
profit by its sale, There is none
among us. have no malice to-
wards any seller, but pity them, for
the traffic, like boomerang, ofte,
destroys all connected with it, and
it has to be legalized by law to be
permitted, for it is an acknowledo-
ed evil that carries disgrace and
uneasy conscience for no man can
successfully follow the business and
keep within the law of the land and
We hold any one wilfully and can
4 .4 !